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3/16/19

Third Place: "Couldn't happen to a nicer guy".Keith Piggott is fired under dubious circumstances and straight afterwards, Australia's Titan moves in on Core Gold. All the fun stuff.

Second Place: "CoatGate! Jerry Twocoats Huang responds". In which we document the incredible (quite literally, as in "the direct opposite of credible") cock and bull story fabricated by Twocoats himself, as he tries to explain away the CoatGate scandal (below). You believe this nonsense, you'll believe anything. .

...and will take place on March 24th, as scheduled. It would seem that the government of Ecuador, the pro-mining lobby and the judge who ordered the suspension last week have been caught red-handed using dirty tricks. Most interesting, especially when you consider the declarations of the Mining Minister and the company just after the illegal suspension was announced.

3/15/19

A crowd-pleaser. When the band was asked about the song's meaning, it's lyrical devices and whether peaches were being used as a figurative image for some body part or other they replied, "No, it's a song about eating peaches." Solid reply. Solid band. Great song and top quartile fun video.

TORONTO, March 15, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Plateau Energy Metals Inc. ("Plateau" or the "Company") (TSX-V:PLU) (OTCQB:PLUUF)
reports that it has been made aware that information was published by a
third party late yesterday surrounding certain concessions in its
93,000 hectare land package being not in good standing. The Company
wishes to confirm all of its mineral concessions are in good standing
and are 100% controlled. The Company regularly confirms concessions are
in good standing via the regulatory body's online database and title
opinions provided by independent legal advisors as a normal course of
business.

Work commitments in accordance with regulations have been and
were properly incurred and filed with the Peru concession regulatory
body INGEMMET.

"It's disappointing to see this irresponsible spread of
misinformation," stated Alex Holmes, CEO. "Plateau is actively engaged
with the government and communities where it operates, and will continue
to operate in an open and transparent manner to the benefit of everyone
involved."

The Company is in the process of determining the source of the
misinformation and is considering legal action. Plateau may provide
further clarification in due course if deemed necessary.

About Plateau Energy Metals

What it fails to explain or refer to are the rulings emitted by Peru's INGEMMET this year, namely ruling 405 dated February 14th 2019 and ruling 464 dated February 20th. Your author has a copy of these documents (just in case PLU are looking in today, as they are apparently thinking of taking legal action against this blog and may like to think again about how much shareholder money they'd waste by doing so) and will be happy to use them in evidence, come the day. These documents state that the payments due to the government of Peru on 32 concession blocks held by the wholly owned subsidiary of Plateau Energy have not been made on two consecutive years and that according to the rules, those concessions are now lapsed. What PLU may be hiding behind today is the fact they have the right to appeal to March 31st, but that does not invalidate the INGEMMET ruling. Or to use the PLU CEOs own words, it's disappointing to see this irresponsible spread of misinformation. That these people insist on hiding behind sophistry and carefully selected phrasing to make half-truths sound like something else is all too typical in the shady world of the junior mining company.

Here, on CEOca(where else?, birds of a feather etc). IKN strongly advises you to go and read Jerry Twocoats' side of the story. Once you do and have digested his version, consider this; In order to believe his excuses you need to believe the following line items:

His taking of the coat, according to the investigators to be deliberately done when the coat-check person was not looking, was done innocently while already in possession of a second coat.

He did not realize he was leaving the restaurant with two coats (and frankly, you can forget all other items on this list. Leaving with the wrong coat is one thing, leaving with two quite another).

His claim that there were only business cards in the pockets the next morning, even though the owner of the coat reported several extra items including his PDAC name badge in the pockets.

That he has so little respect for the possessions of others that he is capable of "forgetting" he has somebody else's coat in his hotel room. For two days. In a sub-zero Toronto.

That even though he took the coat in Toronto, he thought it best to return it in Vancouver. What's more, both the owner of the coat and the company at which he works are in Toronto (and let us not forget, Huang had those business cards in the coat pockets).

That he kept quiet about having the coat right up to the moment when investigators contacted him through simple innocence and bad timing. By this time he is at home in Vancouver.

Meanwhile, in order to believe he simply stole the coat you need to believe the following:

Put bluntly, if you are capable of swallow the story spun by Jerry Twocoats Huang whole, this humble corner of cyberspace strongly suggests you never invest in the junior mining sector because you will die poor.

3/14/19

On February 20th 2019, Peru's geological regulatory body INGEMMET, via its Presidential Resolution 0464, decreed that due to non-payment of concession fees in both 2017 and 2018 the wholly owned subsidiary of Plateau Energy Metals (PLU.v) would be stripped of 32 concessions from its flagship project in the Macusani region of Puno, Peru. What's more, one of the 32 concessions now stripped from the company is Ocacasa 4 which is 1000 hectares of the total 1,700 hectare zone of the property that contains its lithium resource.

This snafu rates highly in IKN's "Annals of Material Event Disclosure Failure." Frankly amazing that the company has tried to keep this under wraps.

Here's what went down during PDAC 2019, ladies and gentlemen and better insight to the true motives of a person responsible with the financial well-being of public companies (i.e. the money of others) is difficult to imagine. Your author has been informed of the goings on here from a strong source and has ratified the story by checking with others involved.

The brokerage Cormark held a reception event during PDAC 2019 at King Taps, a trendy bar and restaurant in downtown Toronto. It was a invitation-only evening that reserved an area of the restaurant and what with it being darned cold during the week, the ticketed coat-check offered by the establishment became very popular. Come the end of the evening and one of the guests, who will remain nameless as his ID is not important to the story but was a guest at the event and not an employee of Cormark, went back to pick up his coat only to find it missing. As these things happen during evenings of alcoholic drinks and merriment, according to the IKN source the now coatless guest expected the mistake to show up the next day and to get his property back after somebody else's error was discovered. However, after two days passed and no news about either his coat or the belongings in its pockets, he decided to report it missing.

Which is when the fun began. As is correct under the circumstances, IKN learned that King Taps took the security breach very seriously and reviewed all security camera recordings of that evening. On doing so they quickly identified the main suspect, a man who is taped getting his own ticketed coat and then, while the coat-check staff member is distracted, deliberately swiping a second coat. He then immediately leaves the restaurant on his own with the two coats (i.e. not much chance he was helping a friend with his coat). With video evidence in hand, King Taps contacted Cormark, the organizers of the event. Cormark also took the incident very seriously and convened internal protocol to review the King Taps tape in order to put a name to the apparent thief. The reply was swift in coming, the man in the images was Jerry Huang, the CFO of not one but two Vancouver-based junior mining companies, namely IMPACT Silver (IPT.v) and Energold Drilling (EGD.v).

The security team proceed to contact Jerry Huang, who according to reports received by IKN and verified by a third party became very nervous and eventually told those investigating that he had made a mistake, didn't realize the coat wasn't his and had planned to return the coat. However, this flies in the face of obvious evidence, such as the way that Mr. Huang was in Toronto for two days after the coat was stolen, how he then got on the plane back to Vancouver with the coat in his possession and most interestingly, when he handed in the coat (to people from the same company in Vancouver, rather than in Toronto), all belongings that identified its true owner had been removed from the pockets (and there were multiple bits and pieces, including a whole bunch of business cards, the coat owner's PDAC conference badge and personal security keys). Exactly what an experienced thief would do when stealing an expensive coat, in fact.

People, these acts would be highly suspicious and point to a person of dubious moral character if they were butcher, baker or candlestick maker but screw that, this is a Chief Financial Officer of two junior mining companies! If you were invested in either of the companies who employs this person, IMPACT Silver or Energold Drilling, wouldn't you like to know about his extra-curricular activities involving his lax attitude toward the property of others? At the very least, we think that the companies in question owe it to us in the investment community to investigate these matters and make a statement or two about their choice of person in charge of the keys to the treasury of IPT and EGD.

Ian Telfer really wants his obscene Goldcorpse (GG) payola, to the point here he's willing to sacrifice his Deputy Chair of Newmont (NEM) role once the deal is sealed. This way he gets to argue that the change of control isn't just a round of fakery, I suppose. The NR:

VANCOUVER, March 13, 2019 /CNW/ - GOLDCORP INC. ("Goldcorp") (TSX: G,NYSE: GG) announced today that Mr. Ian Telfer, the Chairman of Goldcorp, has informed Newmont Mining Corporation ("Newmont") (NYSE: NEM)
that he will not be joining the Newmont Goldcorp Board of Directors
upon completion of the proposed acquisition of Goldcorp by Newmont.
Mr. Telfer is focusing all of his efforts on having the Goldcorp
shareholders approve the pending transaction with Newmont.

"I am excited about the creation of the world's premier gold mining
company, Newmont Goldcorp, and appreciate Newmont's support in my
decision to not join the board, as they have supported all of the
agreements that have brought this merger together," said Ian Telfer, Chairman of Goldcorp.

With just ten days to go before the vote, the government of Ecuador went into mini-celebration today when the referendum question on whether the Giron canton will allow mining was suspended by a court ruling. According to the ruling, the referendum cannot go ahead until the Constitutional Court (CC) hands down a decision. This contradicts the ruling that allowed the vote to happen, because it was precisely because the CC has failed to do so in over three years that opened the door for the addition of the popular consultancy question to the upcoming municipal elections being held on the same day, March 24th. The government of Ecuador and the mining companies want to trap the issue in some kind of legal limbo and pretend they wouldn't have lost the vote by a massive margin in two Sundays' time, which by sleight of hand they are apparently capable of doing. However, if you think this makes INV Metals' (INV.to) Loma Larga project an inch more viable you need to read that certified dumbass Byron King and not this humble corner of cybersapace.

3/13/19

Vancouver, British Columbia: March 12th 2019 – East West Petroleum Corp. (TSX-V: EW) (“East West” or the “Company”) announces cancellation of the annual general and special meeting (the “AGM”) of the shareholders of the Company (the “Shareholders”),
which AGM was scheduled to be held at 10:00 a.m. (local time) on
Friday, March 15, 2019 at Suite 1500, 1055 West Georgia Street,
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

An announcement with a new date will be forthcoming when coordinated.
All resolutions proposed for presentation to the Shareholders in the
Notice of Annual General and Special Meeting of Shareholders, the
accompanying Management Information Circular and the form of Proxy,
which were previously mailed to all Shareholders, are anticipated to be
amended and mailed to all Shareholders prior to the re-scheduled AGM
being held.

About East West Petroleum Corp.

No reason for the cancellation, given though. Hey! Do you think it may perhaps be due to the fact that the boss is under arrest in The USA on wire fraud charges? Or is that mere coincidence?

...this isn't my idea of an improving company that is generating profits to pay down its debt this year. I mean yeah, they're making money, yeah, but where are the massive globs of free cash flow we were promised? Q1 was right on, Q2 acceptable, but what's the model for the quarters to come? Q4? Hope not.

TORONTO, March 12, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Victoria Gold Corp. (TSX.V-VIT) (Victoria or the “Company”) has announced today that it has entered into an agreement with a syndicate of underwriters led by BMO Capital Markets, under which the underwriters have agreed to buy on a bought deal basis, a combination of common shares (the “Common Shares”) and flow-through common shares (the “Flow-Through Common Shares” and together with the Common Shares, the “Securities”) to provide the Company with gross proceeds of at least approximately C$30 million (the “Offering”). The Common Shares will be offered at a price of C$0.44 per Common Share, with minimum gross proceeds of C$30,008,000 and maximum gross proceeds of C$32,555,900. The Flow-Through Common Shares will be offered at a price of C$0.53 per Flow-Through Common Share with up to C$15,004,300 of gross proceeds. In the event that no Flow-Through Common Shares are subscribed for, the Underwriters have agreed to buy the number of Common Shares to provide the Company with gross proceeds of approximately $30 million. The Company has granted the Underwriters an option, exercisable at the offering price for a period of 30 days following the closing of the Offering, to purchase up to an additional 15% of the Common Shares to cover over-allotments, if any. The Offering is expected to close on or about April 2, 2019 and is subject to Victoria receiving all necessary regulatory approvals.The net proceeds from the sale of the Common Shares will be used for construction and operations of the Eagle Gold Mine and general corporate purposes.

Let us recall, this is the very same company which sold its project via a Feasibility Study (a full FS, not a PEA or PFS) by saying it would cost C$369m to build.

That then went and raised C$505m to build its mine after spending around C$38m on its build, which means it was C$174m over budget before we were out the blocks.

And now requires another C$30m on top of that to do the job. Again, we're still not there yet and the chances are high they'll top up again before ever going cash flow positive. Now with a massive debt pile, a 5% NSR to pay on production and a share count moving to over 850m, just another example of the utter BS that passes for normal business practice in the world of mining.

Vancouver businessman David Sidoo charged in U.S. college-entrance scandal

Sidoo is accused of making two separate $100,000 payments to have someone else take SAT entrance exams for his two sons.

Vancouver businessman and former CFL player David Sidoo has been charged
with conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud in connection with a
far-reaching FBI investigation into a criminal conspiracy that sought to
help privileged kids with middling grades gain admission to elite U.S.
universities.Continues here.

Also, you may also recall that after that cycle of EW.v blew up, the company re-invented itself and tried a different business plan under a new CEO: Sidoo's son. That failed, too. Possibly a brains trust issue.

This is the Palisade pump job based round the Iron Point vanadium project near Elko, NV. Behind this 70c and 75c public price are a whole swathe of shares issued last year at 20c and 35c (options at a 35c strike too), held by such philanthropic wonders of Vancouver as Marin Katusa and Cal Everett. When the green light goes and 40m or so shares come out of escrow, it's going to be an almighty rush for the door at this price so they're going to have to work on getting that traded volume average up...looking thin so far, despite peppering the market with five NRs over the last month.

Strong suspicions at the humble corner of cyberspace that VMX is betting on Palisade suckering enough people with more money than sense at its Jekyll Island conference in May. Guest speakers? Oh look, Marin Katusa! There's a coincidence!

Copper broke out and rose above the U$2.90/lb line on February 20th. Since then, and even after its soft day or two last week, the contract has traded above that line on every day to date. It took seven months to break out of its rather stagnant trading range, but now it's out this is obviously no flash in the pan.

The move up this morning is welcomed by your humble scribe because I haven't been bullish on the metal all this time just on a coin-flip. Let the naysayers talk you into their narrative of soft Chinese demand, round these parts we ignore the lip-flappers and work on the hard data, they say copper hasn't even begun to reach its fair price.

The other advantage to this sub-sector is that there are real trade options in the junior mining companies exposed to copper. It's not that quality companies abound (and there are always the dogs and moose pasture salespeople waiting for you), but search around and there are significantly undervalued companies with real and valuable copper assets on offer. I've just added a 5th to my portfolio and I'm longer copper than gold by quite a stretch now.

3/11/19

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, March 11, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Core Gold Inc. ("Core Gold" or the "Company")
(TSXV: CGLD, OTCQX: CGLDF) announces that its Board of Directors has
terminated for cause, the consulting agreement of the Company’s
President & CEO, Mr. Keith Piggott, and has removed him as President
& CEO effective immediately. Mr. Piggott had been previously put on
notice by the Board of Directors.

Full NR here and oh, to be a fly on the wall. I'll never forget the ConfCall I had with that joker when he splained me all about community risk at Caballo Blanco.

Called it likely in the weekly yesterday, too. All the signs were there.

On the week Barrick rose 5.0%,
which was a good snap-back performance from the world’s biggest gold miner but
it’s not something that can be taken in isolation while the whole
NEM/GG/hostile scenario goes on. Therefore we also note that Newmont (NEM) lost
0.3% on the week and Goldcorpse (GG) improved by 1.6%.

The reduction of the arbitrage
between GG and NEM by nearly 2% is an indication that the market thinks that
deal is now more likely. When we add in the newspaper reports last week of
NEM’s Goldberg and GOLD’s Bristow meeting and having constructive discussions,
this also explains the out-performance of GOLD compared to the rest of the
market. Although we do not know for sure, it’s a safe bet that “constructive
discussions” between the two big boys refer to synergy savings around the Nevada assets owned by
both. If Barrick manages to nail down some type of JV deal with NEM (in
exchange for backing off on the hostile angle), it would manage to get most of
what it wants without incurring any further failure risk (or having to swallow
any of the less palatable corners of NEM) and that would be good for its share
price. Meanwhile, NEM sees the potential premium in its price unwind and
Goldcorpse rebounds (the way it has) because there’s nothing left to stop its
merger.

This isn’t over by a long chalk
(and do not underestimate the stopping power of over-inflated egos) but the
week saw the ABX/NEM hook up becoming a little less likely. That’s not an
opinion based on personal bias, that’s what the numbers say.

3/10/19

On March 7, Goldcorp filed its proxy circular in connection with its
proposed acquisition by Newmont, where it was disclosed that:

“In contemplation of the Arrangement, Goldcorp and Ian W. Telfer
(Chairman) amended the terms of Mr. Telfer’s employment agreement to
provide that, in connection with completion of the Arrangement,
Mr. Telfer will be entitled to receive a lump sum payment retirement
allowance from Goldcorp equal to approximately US$12 million, an
increase from his current entitlement of approximately US$4.5 million.
The increased amount of the retiring allowance
was recommended by the Human Resources and Compensation Committee,
reviewed and considered by the Goldcorp Special Committee, and approved
by the Goldcorp Board on the basis of Mr. Telfer’s role as founder and
strategic leader of Goldcorp subsequent to the
acquisition of Glamis Gold Ltd. in November, 2006.” (Emphasis added)

The Shareholders’ Gold Council (SGC) expresses its condemnation for
Goldcorp’s Board for approving this gratuitous additional payment to Mr.
Telfer, and in particular for the members of its Human Resources and
Compensation Committee, Kenneth Williamson (Chair),
Margot Franssen, Randy Reifel and Charlie Sartain. On top of having
awarded Chief Executive Officer David Garofalo an outrageous change of
control package of up to Cdn. $11 million, despite his role in
destroying over Cdn. $3.7 billion in shareholder value,
Goldcorp’s Board saw fit to continue its blatant disregard for
alignment between executive compensation and the interests of Goldcorp’s
shareholders by altering the Chairman’s already bloated pay package
ahead of the transaction with Newmont. While Goldcorp
is telling its shareholders to sell their shares close to a 13-year
low, Goldcorp management stands to reap over US$33 million in potential
change of control payments.

As if lining his pockets with Goldcorp shareholders’ money – to the tune
of approximately US$11.8 million since 2006 – was not enough, Mr.
Telfer, with the support of Goldcorp’s Board, is now effectively
pillaging Newmont shareholders for an additional US$12
million, even though he will be continuing on as Newmont’s new Deputy
Chair. This comes despite the fact that under Mr. Telfer’s perennial
reign as Chairman of Goldcorp’s Board, Goldcorp’s stock price has
collapsed by nearly 60%. In Mr. Telfer’s role as
a “strategic leader” at Goldcorp, he has presided over one of the most
disastrous and egregious examples of shareholder value destruction in
the mining industry.

SGC asks that the Goldcorp Board and the Newmont Board each publicly
state how increasing Mr. Telfer’s retirement allowance benefits their
respective shareholders.

In the view of SGC, the Goldcorp Board’s approval of this additional
“retirement allowance” to Mr. Telfer is another showcase example of
directors choosing cronyism over the interests of shareholders.
Shareholders are advised to remember the actions of the
above-mentioned directors as well as Beverley Briscoe, Cristina Bitar,
Matthew Coon Come and Clement Pelletier. SGC believes that continued
consolidation in the gold sector is plainly necessary so that the
enrichment of directors and management teams at the
expense of shareholders comes to an end by ridding the industry of poor
stewards of shareholder capital.

Excerpted from the latest edition of "Adrian Day's Global Analyst", dated March 9th (edition 720) and following on from the news, as seen on these humble pages a couple of days ago, that Telfer has unilaterally tripled his change of control payment in light of the Newmont takeover:

"To triple Telfer’s payment right before the acquisition is one slap in the face too many, an insult to shareholders. We intend to vote against the merger with Newmont if this payment is not rescinded. We have no voice in these payments, so this is our only way to make our position clear."

Well said, Adrian Day. We only hope that more Goldcorpse shareholders will join his cause and make it clear to these self-serving toerags that unless this graft is withdrawn, they don't get the votes.

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